As far as using ki for protection, power output etc, every time I do tensho kata I get an energy blast from my hands.... it just switches on and goes blert! all by itself. It was quite disconcerting at first but I have got well used to it by now.

With each rep it gets stronger... and stronger [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG] until I am positively blasting energy about everywhere.

I get a similar feeling with sanchin although it is more contained within and I can feel the ki flowing very strongly throughout my body.

So I would say in some ways it can and can't be used to channel energy. With some of the qi gong practice I've done it seems to have strengthened the flow of ki.

You can use a bit of shamanism there as well... Tensho is the 5 animals - snake, crane, tiger, leopard and dragon.... fix the base and let the waist float with the movement... I did the kata at a Kung Fu demo and had the Chinese White Crane guys all over me saying that is one of their forms from Fujian...